Kaguya's Secret
by Melda Burke
Summary: One year later and the new L has taken over his predecessor's job seamlessly. However, people in hospitals have begun to die off at an alarming rate. The cause? Heart attacks. It appears that a new Kira has arisen, and is perhaps more crazed than the last.
1. Chapter 1

AN:3/ Why, hello, there! Surely you must know the drill by now? No? *GASP*

Ryuk: Give me an apple!

No, not unless you say the disclaimer.

Ryuk: You're lazy.

Yes. And proud of it. *Dangles juicey apple in front of his face* Now, say it!

Ryuk: *Drooooooollllllll* Melda Burke owns nothing from my fandom and makes no money off of this story. She does however, own the plot and her OC.

Thank you! *Gives apple* Now go play with Light. *Turns to readers* Now, I'd like to make a few things clear. I will be changing a few things. You'll notice them as you go along, but if you don't like it, then by all means take your leave of the fic. I realize that there are loads of purists out there and I understand the feelings behind that. However, I reserve the right to artistic license, dears. So please, no flaming and remember that a review wouldn't go unappreciated!

*******(^w^)***********

Unbeknownst to the girl beside him, Ryuk had been following her around for quite some time. He'd learned her schedule by heart over the past few weeks. She blinked hard a few times and continued her work on the calculations laid out in front of her. "It's no use." She grumbled under breath and threw her pencil back onto her desk. "I'll never get this frigging stuff! Why in the hell did I take such a hard math?" She put her head in her hands while he watched on.

Her name was Kaguya-hime Nakahara and he had chosen her for his new game.

She was a Performing Arts student at a nearby university and he'd happened to glimpse her on a train while spying on the mortal world. It was pure chance. He'd followed her home that first day and now here he was. And now that she'd finally given up on her homework for the moment, he knew that she'd go for the leather-bound journal that was squeezed between the headboard of her bed and the wall.

She wrote furiously as he observed her from the corner of her room. He considered this to be the best time to drop the Note he was holding. He glanced down at the black notebook. The differences between the Notes were so minute that no one except a Shinigami would see them. It was the slight difference in the shade of black, the order of the rules, sometimes even the colors of the pages. For example, this Note had black instead of white blank pages.

He dipped his head through the walls and checked to see if anyone was around. No one at all. No surprise there, her parents often left her alone at home. Mostly to babysit her younger brother Hiroshi, but he'd overheard the mother talking about Hiroshi going to visit a friend for the weekend.

It was time.

He let the note fall to the ground. She paused for a second and glanced around curiously. Her eyes lighted upon the note in the middle of her bright green rug. She flipped her notebook over and reached down to pick up the Death Note. "Death Note?" She said aloud. "Where did you come from?"

"I'm the one that dropped the notebook you're holding." She gasped and she snapped her head up to see him floating before her. "I thought you'd _never_ touch it. Hey, do you have any apples around here?" Her eyes went as big as saucers while her mind whirred for an explanation. There was none.

And she promptly fainted on the spot.

Ryuk stared at her unconcious body. "Well," He muttered peevishly. "No need to be so dramatic about it."

Finally, her eyes fluttered open and she moaned. "My head...ugh." She rubbed the sore place and blinked a few times. "Oh, thank God. It was just a dream." She made to push herself up and noticed that something was clutched in her hand. With a gulp of apprehension, she glanced down at the object she held.

A solid black notebook with silver lettering that declared it to be a Death Note. "Shit." She fingered the cover for a moment and examining the notebook thoroughly. "I suppose," She said, "that this means you're real, too." Her voice shook a little as she spoke. "If you were here to kill me, you would have done it during the time that I was incapacitated. That is, unless you wanted to see me suffer. However, you haven't even tied me up or brandished a weapon even though you have the advantage. Therefore, I believe you have no malicious intentions at the moment. Is that true?"

"I just want an apple!" He whined.

"Apple?" She hesitantly allowed her gaze to rest on him. Whatever was in her room was huge. There was no way she could take on something like that. Oh, how she wished she hadn't turned down the chance to take martial arts training with her brother! Leathery, tattered wings protruded out from its back like a mockery of an angel's wings. Its body was thin, almost skeletal in places, but very broad at the shoulders and chest. The face of the creature was black-lipped with round fish-like eyes and sharp shark teeth. "Tell me your name first." She demanded. There was no way of telling, but if one believed in legends names were powerful tools against an enemy.

"Call me Ryuk." He flew closer so that he was only inches from her face. Apparently, he had no sense of personal space.

She casually moved to the left, hoping to give her back some cover. The door was still open and there lay her escape route. If all else failed, the window was an option. "Ryuk, what are you? Why are you here? It can't just be to get an apple."

"I'm a shinigami and I'm here because you're the Death Note's new owner." She noticed a similar notebook dangling from a chain at his side. "The notebook also allows you to see me." He grinned eagerly. She gingerly opened the cover and read the rules that were inside. Simple, but deadly, this thing was. There absolutely had to be a catch, she just hadn't figured it out yet.

"How about apples first, killing later?" She suggested. He followed her as she hurried downstairs. A god of death? Did he really expect her to kill anyone? It sounded like he did. What would he do to her if she didn't kill anybody? Considering the possible consequences of refusing the shinigami, she pointed to a large bowl of fruit sitting in the middle of the table. "Help yourself."

Ryuk chopped a particularly large one in half with a single bite. "Thanks!" He cackled and did a barrel roll in mid-air. "Now, let's get down to the fun part!" He pointed at her Death Note. "It's self-explanatory, the rules are in the front under 'how to use it'. Before you ask, there's no price for owning a notebook besides the terrific agony of guilt or paranoia of fear."

"I see...and what if I refuse to use it?"

He paused, chewing thoughtfully. "Well, I could erase your memory and take the notebook somewhere else..."

She pondered this. On one hand, she would be free of the shinigami and the Death Note. On the other, this thing could fall into the hands of another who would wield it to a terrible end. She thought quickly, weighing the options and it seemed hopeless. She could either sacrifice her own sanity by becoming a murderer or be the catalyst for someone else to become one. Suddenly, an idea struck her. "Must I take a life in order to possess a Death Note?"

This question caught him off guard, obviously, but slowly he grinned. He looked like a shark when he did that and she felt like an unsuspecting fish. "Looks like someone's found a loophole!" He pouted a little. "No, it is not a requirement."

She nodded then, her decision made. "I accept the Death Note. I am going to keep it out of the hands of anyone who might use it for evil."

Ryuk sighed heavily. "Out of all of the possibilities I had, I had to accidentally pick someone noble."

"I'm not being noble." She replied, grabbing an apple of her own. "I'm simply doing the right thing."

"Humph. I could kill you." Ryuk told her grumpily. "But, then you might die before you'd get to do anything interesting." He shrugged. "Who knows, maybe you'll get very mad one of these days at some human, an ex-boyfriend perhaps, and write down his name. I want to be there when that happens."

"Yeah," She snorted. "But it's kinda hard to knock off an ex if you never had a boyfriend in the first place. I guess it's a good thing now that guys high-tail it when they see me coming." She sat down heavily at her desk. Maybe doing sums would take her mind off of the uneasy feeling Ryuk was causing her.

His threat had ignited a spark of fear in Kaguya, but she refused to show it. Instead, she ignored the shinigami and focused on her work. Ryuk lounged around on her ceiling for the next few hours, occasionally disappearing through the walls and returning with an apple from downstairs. She managed to limp through her mathematics with a great deal of trouble, but when she was finished she felt more than ever the need for a bit of mind-numbing television.

The tv only had fourteen channels. Three of those were news, seven were educational, two played nothing but music, and the final two were Pay Per View. That had been the restriction that her mother'd placed on allowing Kaguya to have a television in her room. Most of the time, Kaguya kept it off, but occasionally she'd flit through the channels for something worthy of her attention. She'd roulette'd it tonight and chose a channel with her eyes closed.

It was the news. She turned up the volume a bit and listened in. The reporter onscreen was obviously nervous. He kept running his hand through his hair, mussing it up and then patting it down again, and he was talking very quickly. "-might just be a re-currance of the infamous Kira case."

Ryuk darted down and blocked her view. His eyes were practically glued to the screen and he followed the colored bar at the bottom where the name and location of the hospital were shown.

"You make a much better door than you do a window, Ryuk." She craned her neck to see around him.

"This is Taketori Shoto live from the Chubu region where only half an hour ago twelve patients at Koshin'etsu Hospital died of heart attacks." The reporter was joined by a doctor. Her hair was frizzing and looked about scream from anxiety. "This is , she is here to give us vital information on this event."

Dr. Matsu cleared her throat. "The patients in question did indeed suffer fatal heartattacks and it is true that they did so in a successive manner. However, the twelve patients were also on life support at the time, so it will not do to immediately assume that this is connected to last year's Kira killings. None of these patients were criminals. That is all I am allowed to say, thank you."

"Thank you, . Tune in at six pm to see more about this shocking event, hopefully we will have more information at that time." She flicked the tv off.

"Kira had a notebook, didn't he?" She challanged Ryuk.

"Why do you say that?" He asked innocently.

"Well, don't you think it's a bit coincidental that the Death Note's trademark is a death by heart attack? Plus, he was able to kill without touching any of the criminals. All he had to know was their name and face. That's why he killed criminals that were on the news." She began to pace back and forth. Her eyes were narrowed. "Wait a minute.." She glared at him. "Was Kira a shinigami?"

The jig was up, he thought. "No, a shinigami has no interest in morality. There is no right or wrong. What does it matter when you take a life to live if that life is a criminal's or an honest person? It's all the same."

She studied him hard for a moment. "You know something, though. Did you have anything to do with what happened before?"

"I gave Kira the means to kill." He said flippantly. "The same book that you have lying on your pillow, in fact. It was destroyed here in the human world, but the notebooks are nearly invincible. A Death Note must be destroyed three times in the human world before it ceases to exist. Otherwise, it will just reform somewhere in the shinigami realm." He showed her his own Note. "After a Note has been destroyed, it becomes a bit smaller and the pages are turned black. It is still usable, but different."

She glared at the notebook. "Why do shinigamis have Death Notes?"

"When a shinigami kills a human the remaining number of years that the human would have lived is added onto the shinigami's lifespan. We need to kill to survive."

Although the concept was disturbing, the idea that a shinigami did not kill simply for pleasure was easier to stomach than what Kira had done. "I suppose I can understand that." She murmured. "It's sort of like how we kill and eat plants and animals so that we can live."

"The amount of thought you give a hamburger or a bowl of spinach is exactly how we consider the next human who will add to our lifespan." Ryuk agreed.

There was a tangible and laden silence between the two for a few minutes. Kaguya was at a loss for words. Here was a shinigami who was, according to the rules she'd consulted, here to stay until she died of old age or otherwise. And now she owned a notebook that could, should she choose to use it to its full potential, kill anyone in the world with few exceptions. "Ryuk...since I'm going to use this notebook at the barest minimum-"

"Ahhh, afraid of limbo, are we?" He smiled gruesomely.

"No, boredom." She returned with a smirk of her own. "Endless nothingness would get really old, really fast. So, what's your opinion?"

"Well," He flipped upside down and did a few aerial acrobatics for no reason other than to show off. "The use of the Notebook itself usually entails limbo immediately, but I believe there to be no Heaven or Hell. All humans go to limbo, at least that's my opinion. So whaddya have to lose?"

"It's a fifty-fifty chance, I suppose." She mumbled resolutely. That is the price one paid for preventing catastrophe, she thought, and no good deed goes unpunished. "But I don't have to use it and so I will just hold on to it for now."

Ryuk groaned. "Oh, come on! You're being boring!" He eyed his own Death Note again and she inwardly panicked. "Do _something_ with it." He brought out a pen and flipped through a couple of pages. She reached out and jerked it out of his hand at the last moment. "Hey!"

"Ryuk, I'll make a deal with you." He looked interested now. All she had to do was bait a hook. What did a shinigami care about? Apples. She could use that to her advantage. "I will..erm..show you all kinds of ways to eat apples-"

"I already know how to eat an apple, dofus." Scoffed the shinigami as he grabbed back his pen and made to write down her name.

"No name-calling, please." She asked sharply. "If you'd have let me finish, I was going to tell you about applesauce, applebutter, apple dumplings apple pie, apple tarts, apple-flavored candy, and lots of other things to do with apples. Plus I was going to tell you a story about apples, too, but now that you want to kill me for being too boring..whatever.." She shrugged, trying very hard to appear casual and nonchalant. "Go ahead, I'm ready. Kill me, it's not like I can stop you."

Ryuk's eyes glinted a bit with greed and he let the Note drop from his hands. The skull-topped pen clattered to the floor and rolled under her bed. "Apples are interesting." He said slowly. "I guess you aren't _that_ boring, after all. I'll let you live..." She let out a pent-up breath in relief and flopped down on her mattress. "Tell me about applesauce!"

She sighed and sat up. It was going to be a long night.


	2. Chapter 2

AN:3/ I own nothing!

Ryuk:You own an apple. Gimme!

Gimme, Gimme never gets! *Is tackled by apple-crazed shinigami*

Kaguya was immersed in a pleasent warmth and her body was light as she floated on the wings of fanciful dreams.

There was a weight on her chest.

Her eyes fluttered open.

"Hello." Teeth. Very sharp teeth very close to biting off her nose.

"GYAH!" She rolled out of bed, her limbs tangled in her bedcovers. "Son of a mother-" Her pillow came down and fopped her on the head. "oof..fucker." She growled and freed herself after a few minutes of scrambling around.

"Hahahah!" Her newly acquired shinigami bowled over mid-air with mirth. "You..you should have seen your face!"

"That was terribly mean, Ryuk." She spat at him and crossed her arms petulently.

"You've got to go to school, Kaguya." He mocked her mother's voice all too well in a falsetto that was utterly unsuited to him. "Get up, now, Kaguya!" He smirked. "You're gonna be late." He teased. "You didn't wake up when the alarm went off."

"I don't go to school on Sundays, Ryuk." She rushed to her closet and yanked on a pastel green blouse and a modest black pencil skirt. Her usual black leather and plaid were not to be worn at church. Well, there wasn't an outright rule against it, but she would get dirty looks from all of the grandmothers and snobby prudes. "I teach it."

"I don't get it." He munched an apple he'd raided from downstairs before the human inhabitants had risen.

"I thought you'd been following me around for weeks, Ryuk." She said as she tugged on her mary janes. "Gasp, there's something you don't know!" He rolled his eyes and she giggled. "Well, you'll find out eventually because you'll end up following me there."

"Where are we going? Do they have apples there?" She refused to tell him anything about this mysterious place. So he did as she said and flew along the road just a few feet above her parents' car. He began to have an ominous feeling about this nameless spot where Kaguya 'taught'.

Turns out, his instincts were spot-on. Inside of a squat and square stone building, humans sat on benches that they referred to as 'pee-you's which were lined up in three rows of six. The benches faced a podium draped with a red cloth and a slightly raised platform that stood behind it. The walls were white and bunches of fake dusty flowers hung in bunches like torches. A man dressed in black with a white square at his neck called for all of the children to get up and follow their teacher into the back room.

Then all of the adults got up and began to sing, regardless of ability, which led to Ryuk's hurried escape into the back room. Here things were a bit less irritating, drawings covered the bareness of the walls and kids were laughing quietly, chasing each other around with broken toys. He took a place over the toy chest to watch the goings on. Kaguya finally managed to calm them down and then told them a few stories which, from their content, he supposed were stories from the Bible that had been censored into cute tales better suited to innocents.

Hours later, she was back home and he lounged around her room while complaining about the strange human ritual. "Humans, you guys are usually so interesting!" He grumbled, doing some sort of languid backstroke that mimicked pacing. "That...what went on in that building.." He shuddered. "It was the epitome of boredom."

"It's better than having to listen to the singing. I wish we had an actual choir. Maybe then the psalms wouldn't sound like choked weasels and dying walruses were singing praises, I'm pretty even God would like to hand some of them a tuning fork." She snickered to herself.

"Hey, that's pretty good, hyuk, hyuk!"

"Oh my gosh," She said around her laughter. "You're laughing like Goofy! That's adorable!"

"What's a Goofy?" He inquired, cocking his head to the side.

Now that she'd spent a little bit of time around him, Ryuk wasn't so bad. Of course, there was the whole creepy god of death thing, but he wasn't so frightening once she got used to him. He didn't act specifically menacing, especially now that she was teaching him about different ways to prepare apples. Ryuk was also company for her because she wasn't above admitting she was lonely before he came along.

Her parents left soon after dropping her back at the house. They were gone most of the time; busy with errands, work, Hiroshi's martial arts classes and other things. It wasn't that they were unwilling to spend time with her, but they just didn't have the time. She understood this, but she did long for someone to talk to. As long as Ryuk was around, then she was not alone.

In spite of this, she could not deny that something was once again stirring up trouble in the world. During the weeks after she first met Ryuk, the news reports had come streaming in like mad. Hospitals all over the world were reporting the deaths of people who were either on life-support, dying of terminal illnesses, or even living in miserable poverty. Such activity had caused the media to dub the newest Kira incarnation The Angel of Mercy.

She couldn't ignore what was happening. She was part of this secret now. "Ryuk, do you think that another shinigami has been playing in the human world?" She was currently showing him the proper way to bake an apple pie (for the third time, actually, he'd been unable to restrain himself from eating the filling for the previous attempts). She'd brought the question up out of the blue, hoping to surprise an answer out of him.

His eyes flashed red for a second and she remembered him telling her about shinigami eyes yesterday. Enormously unnerving to know that someone knew the exact day you would perish, but she worked around it. "Yeah, not sure who though. Why should we care?"

"It looks like a Kira copycat, you know that." She reminded him with frustration. "We have to do something."

"_I_ don't have to do anything, Miss Boss." He popped a stray apple slice into his mouth. "You can bribe me with apples, but don't think that a shinigami is at your beck and call. I don't have to give the answer to every single question."

Having pushed the pie into the oven, she set the timer. "Well, you've already helped me get this far. Although, you have to remember that you're stuck with me for the duration of my life. I can let you kill me and you would be without entertainment and without apples until you found a suitable replacement."

"Hmm..good point." He mused whilst chowing down on a bowl full of apple sauce. "I'm still not going to give you all the answers, hyuk. It's not much fun that way."

"Alright, but while I play detective I expect you to be on your best behavior. This Kira is bound to be just as ruthless as the last one and I have no idea what I'm doing." She scrubbed the dishes fiercely. "How in the hell am I going to take this on? It's not as if I can just pick up the phone and call the person who took the original Kira down." Her eyes closed in defeat. "I need to think." She sat down at the dining room table and put her head on her arms. There were loads of things that she had to consider.

She knew next to nothing about the previous Kiras besides the snippets that were splattered all over the newspapers and tv. The only thing she had was that the mysterious L had been the one to take care of it all. Ryuk sure as heck wasn't going to tell her anything, so how was she going to get into touch with this guy? Since he'd solved the case he'd know about the Death Note and he'd want to get in touch with someone like her.

Then again, perhaps he'd take her for another Kira and she'd end up in jail and he'd try to destroy the Death Note again. He probably wouldn't listen to her if she tried to tell him that such an action would do more harm than good. In order to muddle her way through this perhaps she could examine this mysterious detective's behavior. His face was never shown and his voice was run through a synthesizer. Obviously, he was well-respected with authority figures and government leaders. That was the extent of her knowledge.

However, what if she did go the direct route? Surely the police force would not hesitate to bring forth a witness (of sorts) and since she was the one who was volunteering she'd have the power to make conditions on her information. Including how she obtained it...

She glanced up at Ryuk, who was checking on the pie, and smiled a little. Sure, the shinigami was a pain at times, and he'd threatened to kill her off, but there was an innate charm that lay below the creepy exterior. Though, those eyes could definitely put her off her lunch if she happened to get sushi or sashimi. Blech.

"Does smoke mean that it's done?"

And there went the charm right out the window like a little butterfly. A tendril of smoke crept out of the oven and she yanked it open to find that the pie had simply dripped a bit of filling onto the bottom. Which was, in a way, worse than if the pie had actually caught on fire because this meant she would have to scrub out the oven. She pulled the pie out and turned off the oven. "Open a window, Ryuk, I don't want my parents to come home thinking that I set the place on fire."

Once everything was aired out, scrubbed, and a piece of homemade pie had been eaten by each, Kaguya worked out the details of her plan. It was quite simple actually, but it involved a bit of acting and a lot of emotional manipulating. "Hello. This is Kanto Region Police Station number 1, how may we assist you?"

"Yes, I'd like to volunteer as a witness. I have information on the hospital killings." She batted at Ryuk,.who had found her cat Mistofelees and was tormenting it. He giggled wildly as she shushed him with her hand clamped over the reciever.

"Oh!" The woman on the other end was silent for a long time. "Erm...very well...give me your name and address. W-would you like a police escort from your home?" Funny how the possible re-emergence of Kira sent people into shock. Well, it was an understandable reaction to the most fiercesome and ruthless serial murderer in history.

"No, thank you." She smiled. This was her chance to borrow her father's bike. Because she preferred to walk most places she hadn't bothered with driving even after getting her license, but he had given her permission to ride it occasionally. It was beautiful and chromed-up to the extreme. She ran her fingers along the handle. "Ryuk, think you can keep up?" She snapped the helmet into place and shrugged into her father's leather duster.

"I should be asking you that." He effortlessly kept pace with her as they raced down the highway.

Upon her arrival, she noticed a host of squad cars swarming in. A young officer immediately confronted her."Excuse me, miss, but I've just been handed orders to not allow anyone in." A static buzz sounded on his walkie and he moved off to the side, mumbling into it for a few minutes before returning. "Is your name Kaguya Nakahara, miss?" She nodded. "Follow me, then please."

She groaned to herself as the officer pushed another paper release form towards her. "I doubt," She muttered under her breath so that only Ryuk could hear, "that there will be anything that they don't know about me after reading these forms." He only poked her in the back and made fun of Officer Shatou by mimicking his movements dramatically.

_If you have led the police force to believe a statement that you know to be false, you will be put on trial as a menace to society and an inhibitor of justice. Do you understand these terms?_

She checked yes and moved on to the second of fifty questions. How much more of this before her fingers fell off, she wondered as she checked off boxes like mad. She'd already given them her name, address, phone (cell and home), email, pm, facebook, yahoo and gmail, social contact numbers, her parents' names, her grandparents' names, her brother's name, and provided a copy of her driver's license. She frowned, thank heaven she didn't have a car yet because that would set off a new form! They would have to document her ownership, which would mean a three day waiting period as the paperwork returned from wherever they sent it.

One thing was for sure, she was _never_ going to be a secretary.

"Finished." She slid the form away with a sigh of relief. "Now, when do I get to make a statement so that I can go home?"

Officer Shatou appeared hesitant. "Well, I apologize, but you will not be going home tonight, Miss Nakahara." Her jaw practically dropped, but really she should have expected this after all of that paperwork and the two hour waiting in the front room. "It's mostly for security, Miss Nakahara. There's evidence that this is a new Kira, after all, and-"

He was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a dapper elderly gentleman that reminded Kaguya of her grandfather vaguely. He was smiling kindly and she rose politely to acknowledge her elder. "Good afternoon." He bowed and she did the same.

"Good afternoon." She replied. Ryuk was doing something weird around the gentleman. He was staring at him with a wide-eyed look, an unfathomable depth of excitement plastered all over his face. He pointed at the stranger and smirked knowningly. She schooled her features. "My name is-" He abruptly cut her off.

"From now on, you must not speak your name aloud. You may call me Watari and I will call you..." He paused. "What would you like to be called?

"Like an alias?" She went over several possibilities, but only one kept resurfacing. It was the name she used while clubbing at Black Veil in Osaka. "Ai Mori, please."

"Alright then, Ai. If you would please accompany me to the meeting room, we will begin." She followed him down a long hallway where she could see suited men and women typing away, enjoying a cup of coffee or looking tired and over-worked while hunched around a glowing blue screen. She was led past all of these to enter a relatively large spacious place with multiple rows of desks and computers facing a humongous flat screen television. A strange symbol bounced around the screen. Somehow, it was familiar.

It was an L! The detective really was informed as she had expected. "As soon as your call was taken, I was notified." Watari handed her a sleek silver laptop. When she opened it, the same letter was bouncing merrily off the edges. "Speak clearly."

"Umm..." She stared at it for a moment, unsure what to think or say. "Hi?"

She nearly dropped the laptop when the speakers blasted a sythsized voice. "Hello, I am N."

"Call me Ai Mori." She stammered out in awe.

"Tell me everything you know, Ai Mori. I will know if you are lying or making anything up. We have set up thermal cameras in the room and they are focused on you. If you were to lie, your heartbeat would increase, your blood pressure would spike, and your temperature would either drop or increase."

She was sure that was an illegal move on this his part, but what the hell? She'd signed all of that damned paperwork saying she'd conform to their whims. Her hand was still sore.."Right, well, it's not so much that I know anything, but that I have connections which would be vital to this case."

"Go on."

"First of all, you know that the original Death Note that Kira possessed was destroyed by the famous L. However, Death Notes are as immortal as Shi-shinigami." She stuttered a little. "It reappeared in the shinigami realm and has been distributed once again."

" I wonder how you came by all of this information, Ai Mori, but that is a question best suited for later. So you believe the same Note to belong to this new Kira?"

"No, as it isn't the original Note." Several burly men in uniform were circled around her now and she began to feel somewhat threatened. However, she rationalized, the only thing she had to fear was being relieved of her Death Note which was currently concealed neatly within another notebook inside her pack. She kept her eyes on the ground. "Hey, could you guys back up and give me some room? You're smothering me."

"Would everyone besides Watari and the Task Force please vacate the room?" Three quarters of the room left, but not without grumbles and suspicious glances in her direction. "Is that better?"

"Uh, yeah. Thanks." She cleared her throat. "Well, the truth is-"

"You're not going to tell them about me are you?" Hissed Ryuk. "They'll take it away!"

Officer Shatou tapped her shoulder. "Ai, we don't have all day."

"I have it, I have the original Note!" She blurted out, then clapped her hands over her mouth, her eyes going wide. Everyone reacted with great shock and disbelief except for Watari and there was no distorted gasp from the laptop she held. She began talking a mile a minute, expecting them to pounce on her any moment. "I mean, I haven't used it or anything. Oh, man, I didn't mean for it to come out like I'm some kind of sadistic killer! It just...kinda flopped in front of me on my floor and I picked it up. I swear I haven't written any names in it." She grabbed the Note out of her tote and desperately showed it to the screen. "Only, please don't take it away. I don't want it to fall in the wrong hands and I really don't have the heart to hurt anyone, honest!"

"How can we trust anyone, especially a volatile teenage girl, to hold such a dangerous artifact?" Asked a lady to her right whose long bangs kept slipping in front of her eyes. "Adolescents don't have a very good history with that Note."

"Neither do mature adults, Officer Takama." Reminded L solumnly. "Miss Mori's records are in my very hands, Watari sent me a copy only twenty-six minutes ago. While she may be a teenager, she has no violent history, makes average marks, and is generally very social. Previous experience has led me to believe that the majority of psychotic possible serial murders possess either extremely high or below average marks, are reclusive or introverted, and in some cases have demonstrated previous instances of violence. Although, one could make an argument that a great deal of serial killers seem normal, but-"

"So I'm too nice and dumb to use the Death Note?" Kaguya muttered, feeling offended. "Thanks a lot." Ryuk cackled and she wished she could shut him up, but didn't dare reveal his presence.

"What exactly does that prove?" Officer Takama challanged.

"Nothing, and that is exactly the point. Names do tend to lingure in a Note once written in, so an examination of the Note will be necessary to affirm the truth of her previous claim of innocence of murder. Other than that, I see an advantage to allowing her possession of the Death Note while under close observation, of course. Watari, would you please glance through the Note?"

"Certainly." She held up the Note and he flicked through a few pages, then glanced up and raised an eyebrow. "Good afternoon, Shinigami Ryuk." He said pleasently and returned to his task. Kaguya looked where he had and found Ryuk silently (for once!) watching over her shoulder. His breath was ice cold on her shoulder. "Everything is clear."

"Good. Now, we must arrange for Ai Mori's accomodations, shall we? Goodbye, everyone and thank you for your efforts." There was a bloop and the television went black. Watari closed the laptop.

"Wait, hold on here." Did they honestly expect her to come along with them? She couldn't do that! Perhaps she should have thought this through a little more. They were obviously going to keep her under lock and key. "Why can't I just be under house arrest or something?"

The man did not answer her question and instead chose to lead her gently outside. "Where is your vehicle?"

"What about my family?" She squeaked pleadingly. "I can't just disappear. It would kill them!" Stepping to the side, she noticed that a handful of officers froze with their hands on their weapons. "Oh, please, relax. I'm not going to assault an old man or try to run away. I just want some answers. After all, I'm too much of an idiot to figure everything out by myself." She added the last bit with a huff. Okay, so she'd let her math grades slip a little bit and her rank wasn't even in the first thirty or maybe even the first fifty. That didn't mean she was unintelligent! She was just very easily distracted. "Ooo!" She made a grab for a strange little coin on the ground. She held it up for Watari to see. "I've heard about these. It's a lucky penny! Oh, and it's shiny, I'll bet some American dropped it-" Realizing that everyone was staring at her, she stopped her gleeful ramble. "What? Come on, guys, it's a _lucky penny_!"

"You are stupid." The rude officer Takama laughed and shook her head.

Kaguya made a face at her. "You're just upset that you'll be unlucky for the rest of your miserable day." She played contentedly with the penny, flipping it heads and tails.

"Ahem, excuse me, Ai, but please get into the car." Watari opened the door of a newly arrived limousine. "Your motorcycle will be returned to your parents." Acknowledging she had no choice, she obeyed. Ryuk slipped in through the back of the limo and settled down. His wings stuck halfway through the door and he was partially inside the seat. The sight was more than a little disturbing.

"Oh, and miss Mori, I will contact your parents shortly after we arrive in Shinjuku. I'm afraid that we mayn't tell them the whole truth and you must not either. If you are caught, and you will be if you do, trying to send secret messages explaining the situation, then you will have terminated the privelege to speak with them at all." He brought out a thin cell. "While we're out, sir, stop by the candy shop. We must restock." He turned to face her. "Would you like anything?"

"A slice of chocolate cake and a cherry soda, please. Thanks for asking." She replied, flipping her lucky penny over and over again with a smile. She wasn't sure what kind of investigation allowed potential suspects and/or police informants to get free sweets, but she sure as heck wouldn't question it. One must never question free cake, she thought, it will anger the cake gods. Ryuk made a noise. "Oh, and some apple pie, too, please."

The rest of the day was uneventful. Watari ordered a room on short notice from an extremely nice hotel and she was given a large amount of cash. Apparently, money was thrown around with a great ease of mind. The money was specifically for clothing and necessary toiletries because she was under a restriction. In order to not draw attention to her family, she wasn't allowed to go back and retrieve her things. Copies of her schoolbooks were ordered and she was given a temporary absence excuse that was good for several months.

Her family was notified of some details, such as the fact that Kaguya was an important witness to a dangerous case. Mostly, though, they were in the dark about what was truly going excuse given to those curious about her absence, she'd been told, was very simple. She'd had a fight with her parents and decided to take a break. Supposedly, she was now in America with her aunt Sakura.

Amazing how easy it was to disappear, she mused while sipping her soda. Almost eerie how uncomplicated a proceedure it was to create fake documents, and to start rumours about her 'secret' rebellion against her parents. "The neighbor lady won't be surprised. Silly, nosey woman was always telling my mother stories about my wayward attitude. Now that I'm a delinquent, she'll be saying 'I told you so' and patting my mom sympathetically on the shoulder." She complained goodnaturedly to Ryuk. "Too late to regret any of this now." She turned on the tv. "This place is pretty decent, too. There's 300 channels. A shopping network!" She stopped there for a few seconds. "I wonder if Watari'll care if I ask him for Harkujira fashion?"

"I'm borrrrrrrreeeeedddd." Moaned Ryuk. "This is soooo booooorrrring!"

She rolled her eyes. "Wanna make-out?" She giggled when he scrambled to the other side of the room. "Just kidding. That's just something my friend Yuki would say whenever I told him I was bored. He's got a boyfriend, so it was hilarious." Her smile faded. "I miss him and Gauge."

"Gauge?"

She raised a sceptical eyebrow. "You wanna know about my friends?"

"I could wander around, but I don't wanna miss any action." He pouted like his circumstance was a true tragedy. "I will do anything to fend off the boredom, even listen to you."

Annoyed, but strangely flattered, she replied with, "Well, I absolutely love how I'm your second choice of entertainment." She ran over to her tote, where she kept absolutely everything that held meaning to her. The Death Note, no longer hidden inside the other note, along with an assortment of buttons, cosmetics, a favorite book or two, her pens, a pretty blue feather she intended to attach to her top hat, a romance manga, a bunch of photos, and her wallet. She brought out the photos for him to see.

In most of the pictures, four people were the main focus. One was of a young man with spiked green hair, aviator goggles, and a white leather trench coat. He was making a strange symbol with his fingers and grinning broadly, his somewhat predatory gaze was focused off-camera into a crowd of humans frozen in the act of gyrating against one another. "That's Yuki, he's my best male friend. How we met is the funniest story! Yuki was new about six years ago and the first day he came, he didn't realize that his pet rat Soto had stowed away in his pack. Soto escaped and ran around the school. I met Yuki after I caught Soto, who had just finished relieving himself on my favorite pair of boots."

Ryuk was sure he'd be snoring if he could sleep. "Interesting, very interesting."

The next photo was of a well-built girl with huge discs stretching out her earlobes. "This is Gauge, I guess you can figure out why we call her that. I met her at the mall when I was going through my piercing phase. When I got my nose pierced, she was the only other one in the shop and she held my hand." She pointed to a nearly indescernable little hole just above her nostril. "She's an aspiring tattoo artist, too. I hope she gets through school. Her father used to beat her, you see, and she got mixed in with some drug addicts, but she's better now. She calls me when..." Ryuk saw Kaguya blink her eyes a few times. She was obviously trying not to cry. "..when she relapses..what if she relapses while I'm stuck here, Ryuk?"

He shrugged. "She'll just have to stop relying on you and learn to prop herself up."

"That's terrible," She said quietly, "but..maybe you're right that it'll be good for her to try on her own." She automatically brightened when she flipped to another, darker scene. It was shot in a graveyard and a tall boy in shirtsleeves holding a cane was leaning on the graveyard's wrought-iron fence. He was pale and his hair was grey. "He's Marcus. I've known him since we were in nappies." Smiling a little, she traced the shape of his face. "One day, we're going to visit America together. He's been there many times. His mother is American and he goes there to stay with her in the summer when she has custody."

The final picture was of the entire group. Yuki was hanging off of her, his arm crooked around her neck while the other encircled Gauge, who was making a peace symbol. Marcus stood slightly off to the side, smiling amusedly at the other three. An unknown person stood closer to the camera and was holding onto Marcus's hand, her hair was bright pink and done in dreads, her blouse and pants were neon pink and baggy. She looked extremely unwell and tired, but happy. "Who's that?"

"Madeline." Ryuk heard the catch in Kaguya's voice. "She was my best friend ever."

"What happened?" He asked, examining the girl closer. Madeline in the picture was nearly skeletal, her eyes a bit sunken, and her skin deathly pale. It was a wonder she could stand on her own.

"She died of terminal cancer." He didn't press the issue. Kaguya was chewing rather viciously on her lip and her eyes were tightly shut. "You're a shinigami, though, so I guess death doesn't really affect you much. Hell, you use it as entertainment." She rubbed her thumb over Madeline's face.

She jumped when a hidden intercom screeched out static. "Ai Mori, please come to room 240."

Inside that room, she was met with a shadowy figure crouched in a corner. He was backlit with the blue glow of several television screens and a laptop. The overall effect creeped her out a bit. She checked out the rest of the room and saw Watari emerging from a bedroom carrying linens to be placed on a trolley. "Ai Mori, welcome." The figure raised his head slightly and his features were brought into stark relief by the angle.

Like a bleached sheet, he was snow-white from hair to toe. Even his pajama clothes were a pristine white. His irises were the only color in his face, they were violet and a vital clue to this boy's condition. The albino boy stood, his gaze zeroed in on her. "Thanks." She hadn't noticed the mound of sweets heaped next to him, but her attention was drawn as he plucked one from the pile.

"Do you have a shinigami yet?" Seeing no reason to lie, she told him she did. "And is this shinigami's name Ryuk?"

"Yeah." She handed the Death Note over, but not without hesitation. He flipped through it quickly and nodded at Ryuk, who was peering down at him with a disapproving frown.

He nibbled his finger silently. "It is as I predicted then, your helpful appearance has confirmed my suspicions. A different shinigami dropped a notebook into the life of this new Kira, whom the public has dubbed Angel of Mercy, and the shinigami Ryuk has returned to make some competition. He could not stand to see being one-upped at his own game, so he chose a someone who appeared to be everything he could hope for." L pointed at her. "A person who had many reasons to be feared and hated, which would fuel discrimnation against said person. Thus the person was bound to have some sort of inner turmoil and would bear a grudge."

In some way, Kaguya felt betrayed. She struggled with that strange emotion and faced down the shinigami. He was fidgeting with an apple core and attempting to look anywhere else. "Is that true?" Now that L had revealed his motivation, she knew exactly what those 'reasons to be feared and hated' were. "You chose me because I looked..scary..didn't you? You told me that you'd watched me, so you saw how people react when I walk down the street."

L continued on, interrupting her unconcernedly. "Fortunately for us, Ryuk's judgements are hit-and-miss. Sort of like battleship." He held up the boardgame and began to play against himself whilst he talked. "Strange and ironic, isn't it? Someone like you, Ai Mori, who appears to be a personification of the potential killer is actually the exact opposite. While the former Kira was simply an everyday college student if one discounts his I.Q. and strong, yet severely misguided sense of justice."

She fumed and Ryuk wondered if she was about to blow smoke out of her ears. "So, I just came here to be insulted?" She spat. "I am not a killer! So I listen to strange music and I dress a bit different. And sure, I'll admit I've gotten drunk underage once or twice, but I've never, ever hurt anyone." She snatched back the Death Note and threw it at Ryuk, but it simply passed right through him and hit the wall. "You know what? I've had it. If standing around here means that my reputation is being tested, not to mention my intelligence questioned, then I'd rather not have a Death Note at all." She knew this was childish, but didn't really care at this point. She was so fed up with this sort of behavior that she couldn't stop the pent-up explosion. "Find another fucking person to play your game, Ryuk."

She whipped around and was about to march out the door when L caught her hand and threw her bodily to the floor. "Please excuse me, Mori," He said as nonchalantly as if he were stating the weather and hadn't just assaulted her. "But I can't allow you to quit now. You see, it will be much easier to find this Kira if we are to challange him. And in order to challange him, we must create competition." She struggled under his heavy foot. For such a boney guy, this L felt like he weighed three hundred pounds. Perhaps that was mostly brain-weight, she thought grudgingly.

"I'm not going to kill people!" She shouted up at him from her awkward position. "How could you, a figure of justice, propose that?"

He smiled and bit into a chocolate bar. "You'll see." Was his enlightening answer. "Watari, please escort Mori back to her room along with the Death Note. I will call when I have need of her again."

"Of course, sir."


	3. Chapter 3

AN:3/ I own nothing! Besides Kaguya, I mean.

Kaguya: RYUK! Put me down *Lots of crashes* You PERVERT!

Ryuk: Hyuk, hyuk, hyuk!

He has the laugh of a serial killer. POTATO CHIPS. On with the show!

"Aw, come on, Kaguya. Talk to me. It's boring here without conversation." Ryuk prodded her with a curved claw. She pulled the covers over her head and tried to shut him out. How could he? She'd become fond of him during the time they'd spent together, almost thought of him as a friend. And he was using her, that's why he was so eager for her to use the Note! Honestly, she felt like a complete idiot. The shinigami was just part of the rest of them, the ones who only saw that she wasn't standard order.

"Go away, fish-face." Her voice was muffled by the thick comforter. "I hate you."

"Do you want an apple?" Ryuk simply couldn't comprehend what he'd done wrong. Sure, he'd picked the girl because people were afraid of her, but that wasn't anything to get mad over. At least, not in his mind. "They gave us a whole bag full just now." He rambled on, hoping to engage her. He wasn't used to this. She loved to talk, always going on and on about one thing or another and randomly switching topics without warning. The silence was wearying. "The Shinigami realm should get room service, wouldn't that be great? I could just imagine calling up a human butler and ordering apple-flavored everything and it's there in thirty minutes or else he forfeits half his lifespan!"

"That's the thing, Ryuk!" She shouted, throwing off the blanket. "That's all you do is think about killing! Have you ever thought that maybe that's why shinigamis are so miserable? It's no way to live, but you throw death around like a cheap hooker. Maybe if your kind put half an effort into something other than taking lives and playing God, then you guys would have fun. The shinigami realm may be crumbling, but who says you can't save it? You all are too interested in death to care about the life around you. In order to appreciate death, one has to love life." She panted heavily, her rant wore her out and the rush of emotions had left her drained and numb. She fell back onto her pillow.

Ryuk pulled back the covers. "I do love life." He protested fervently.

Her face was blotchy and wet from crying. "Prove it, then."

"I will." His claws grasped her face, making her look at him. They were inches apart and she could feel his breath on her face. "But I'm a shinigami and I have to hold my own. There's nothing I can promise because I'm not on any human's side. All I can tell you is that you won't be killed. Even that's pushing the limit, but I have to admit I've taken a certain liking to you, girl and that's worth a bit of risk. You're better than Light ever was, not sure why, but you are. We're gonna win this and when we find out who it is, then you'll get to say checkmate."

She sniffled a little. "Is it sad that that's probably the sweetest thing that anyone's ever said to me?" She hiccuped and her shoulders shook a bit. "You have a strange way of apologizing, Ryuk, but I forgive you anyway." Kaguya smiled weakly at him and he grinned back. "Fish-face, what the hell am I going to do with you!"

"Well, you could start by telling me what a hooker is." He dead-panned.

"Uhh..."

He threw his head back and cackled. "Aw, just kiddin'."

She smiled and turned on her boombox. It had been a gift from a certain pink-haired individual on her birthday about three years ago. Since then, the thing was her default relaxation technique. She popped in a CD she favored and it automatically went to the song that she'd last played. The waltz-like music wafted through the air and Twist's teasing voice as he taunted Beethoven made her heart swell as always. "Do me a favor Ryuk." She asked, pausing the music for a moment. "Come down here, I want to show you something."

As soon as his feet touched the floor, she came up close and dragged one of his hands to her shoulder and the other to her waist. "What the hell?" He exclaimed, a strange grin plastered on his face. "Are you coming on to me, girl?"

She snorted."As if, fish-face," She rewound the song and pressed play. "I'm teaching you how to dance. Now, follow my lead." They whorled in circles to match the weaving beat. The good point about teaching a shinigami a waltz was the fact that foot-squashing wasn't really a big concern. However, those teeth were unnerving at that proximity.

"So what's with the impromptu ballet lessons?" He inquired as he spun her out.

She laughed quietly as the music changed to Mephistopheles' chanting monologue. "Nothing. This album just always makes me want to get up and move." Now that he'd gotten the hang of it, he was actually very good. Must have had something to do with all of those acrobatic stretches and gymnastics he could do in midair, she mused. He was, damn it all, more graceful than those ultralong limbs would imply. "Besides, this is a waltz, not ballet. There's much more jumping and tippy-toe dancing in ballet. I'd probably break my ankle if I attempted something like that."

"Why? Weak ankles?" He teased gently as the next song's opening notes played. It was Vienna, one of her absolute favorites (except Requiem The Fifth).

"I happen to have quite sturdy ankles, thank you very much, sir." She replied indignantly. "It's just that I'm a bit untrained for all of that. Ballet is hard work."

"So is waltzing." He told her, moaning in an exhaggerated fashion. "I feel weak. Quick, fetch me an apple! My soul will die if you don't!"

He twisted himself up like a pretzel, his arm forming a near-complete knot with his left leg and his back curved like Quasimodo. Rolling her eyes, she bent over to fulfill his needy request. Almost immediately, she straightened up and faced him. "You just touched my bum!" She accused.

"I might have." He confessed with a smirk. "Whatchya gonna do about it?"

"You pervert, here's your apple." She purposely threw it at his head. The boombox was unplugged and she sat down to work on her studies. Things were more or less normal. Which isn't exactly what someone would expect when one is involved in a police investigation. No one really needed her, she supposed, not until L had done whatever he'd mysteriously alluded to earlier.

Kaguya wasn't exactly sure rather her life was compromised at the moment or not. There was no way to tell if this second generation Kira was as ruthless as his predecessor. Although, similarities might have been drawn between the two. The previous Kira had been working off of an illusion of a perfect world without crime or sin while this one most likely imagined one without pain, hardship, and suffering. While the intentions were noble, the road to hell was paved with good intentions...or was it the skulls of unbaptized babies? Maybe that last bit was Dante's Inferno speaking.

In any case, she was going to be under lots of surveillence, but there was an upside. She put away her books now that she was done with homework and brought out a pair of nylon hose. At least house arrest gave her a chance to work on personalizing her new wardrobe. She brought out scissors, thread, a needle, and fabric glue. Ryuk watched with fascination as she ripped, frayed, and embroidered her way through two pairs of new jeans and a shirt.

The finished products were adorned heavily with black lace trim or faux fur, ribbons, badges, and fashionable rips everywhere. "I wish I had my iron." She mumbled around a hatpin as she glued a few seedbeads to the front of her shirt. "Sure, I was allowed scissors, needles and needle-nosed pliers, but I wasn't allowed to bring my ironing board and iron.." She paused for a second. "Hold the phone." She spit out the hatpin and grabbed for her hairstraightener. The poor thing never did get to see much use, but now she grinned gleefully as she cut out an iron-on decal from her considerable stash. She clamped the fabric between the ceramic hotplates. "I am a fashion genius!" She declared proudly.

Not even thirty minutes later, she grunted and bemoaned her situation as she attempted to fit a pair of nylons over her head. "I don't think they're supposed to go on that way." Ryuk snickered from his lounging position on her pillows.

"I know they're not supposed to. That's why I cut a hole in the crotch for my head!" She struggled with the tangled mess, one arm in and one arm out of the mangled hosary. "If I could just pull this little rolled up piece right here down." She fought against the nylon in vain. "Ryuk, help?"

"Should I cut it off?"

"No!" She said horrified. "I paid 600 yen for these! All I need you to do is pull them down so I can figure out where I need to cut the holes for my fingers." She pointed to a black roll at the top of her chest. "Just kind of pull that down a little and then hold out the other leg so I can wiggle my arm through."

"I have a feeling that you might have had an easier time if you'd taken your shirt off." He informed her after she had done the necessary modifications. "It wouldn't be as if I'd see anything new. In the shinigami world, we watch human porn all of the time-"

"Stop. Just be quiet." She began to turn a little green. "I don't want to know what kind of boredom would lead a shinigami towards watching humans doing carnal acts."

He grinned, seating himself crosslegged on the floor beside her workspace. "Boredom's not always what drives us to being voyeurs."

"Oh, God, I am not having this conversation." She groaned and accidentally stabbed her lip with the hatpin.

"Forbidden apples are always the sweetest." He quipped, crunching an apple core to emphasize his point. "The Shinigami King decreed that sex with humans is forbidden, as is Shinigami sex, but what he doesn't know won't kill him. There's been plenty of cases-"

"Ryuk, please, stop."

He ignored her and continued. "And usually, if we love a human and try to save them by writing in the Death Note, then we perish."

She sighed and turned around. "What is your point with telling me that?"

He stared at her and at first she thought he might finally be without a witty retort, but then he was so close. "Your lip is bleeding." He swiped his thumb over her bottom lip and it came away spotted with red.

"Your fault." She muttered. "You distracted me, I had a pin in my mouth."

"I do have a habit of distracting you, don't I?" Ryuk winked in he must have thought was a rogue-ish way and effectively ruined the moment.

She pushed him back and went to work again. "Oh, be quiet. Make yourself useful and hand me the craft glue."

Near had never been surprised in his short life. Even when he was a small child he'd been able to predict people's actions and use them like pawns. Although, his flawless record of manipulation and predictability would crash and burn before the new arrival had been there a whole night.

And he would certainly not forget when she came crashing through the door with the shinigami's taloned hand superglued to her cheek, his left wing stuck determinedly to her right shoulder, and their hair gummed irrevocably together. "Please, help." Pleaded the Kaguya half. "This genius decided to experiment with my craft glue."

"How did you-" He peered closely at their strange situation, as if they were frozen while playing the game of Twister. Left hand blue, Death Note green... "Never mind, Watari.."

"Yes, si-" The older man fell silent. "Oh were you two doing?"

"If you can believe it, making a skirt." Huffed Kaguya with annoyance. "Now please free me."

Nearly an hour and a half later, Kaguya was still snapping at Ryuk. "My hair looks like a spasmatic weasel on crack cut it." She held out the uneven strands that Watari had been forced to sheer off. "Plus, now I'm going to have to re-dye it because that glue was stuck to all of the streaks. Do you know how much hair dye costs?"

"In case you haven't noticed, girl, I'm not in much better shape." One half of his spikey hair had been reduced to a quarter of its length. "I look like one of your friends gave me a haircut."

"There is NOTHING wrong with mohawks." She argued loudly. "You could've gotten it worse, your wings might've had to be clipped." He yelped, clutching his freed wing. "Well, it was your own dumbness."

"I'm not dumb." He shot back.

"You're right, you're special." She replied sweetly. Watari and Near exchanged glances as they watched the bantering pair leave for their own room once again.

"Perhaps," Near said as he glumly knocked down the castle of blocks he'd made to represent Kaguya. "I should find those two a babysitter."


	4. Chapter 4

AN:3/ I own nothing and I make no money from writing this sort of stuff.

************(^w^)************

"Wake up, sunshine, _hyuk_!" Chimed Kaguya's living personal alarm clock.

"Urgh...it's four in the morning, Ryuk. What could you possibly want?" She blinked blearily at the huge otherworldly being, his face inches from her own. She didn't think she'd ever get used to his lack of respect for personal space.

"You taught me how to dance last night."

She yawned and stretched. "Yeah, so what?"

"Soooo, tit for tat, girl. Time for me to show you something _I_ know." He swooped and dived as much as the hotel room's limited space would allow. She narrowed her eyes, he was too excited for this. What was he planning, the sneaky devil?

"Where are we going?" She asked suspiciously.

"You'll see!"

And that's how she ended up on the very top of the tallest building in the Chubu region without even a guardrail or a handhold for security. "Everyone's going to be mad that we're out and about, Ryuk." She reminded him.

"No, they're not. I asked." He practically crowed. "It was almost as if Nea..er..L was glad to have you out of the place. He literally shooed me out of the door. He even gave me a chocolate bar for you...right after he muttered something about sitting on babies."

She dubiously studied the candy bar. "He must not have read my medical file before I came here. I'm allergic to chocolate. Or he just didn't care."

Ryuk shrugged and held it out over the side of the building. "I wonder what would happen if this were to hit someone's head from this height?" And he let the bar go.

**************(^w^)*******************

Touta Matsuda was going to work with a happy smile on his face. Ryuzaki would have called him an idiot for looking so cheerful when on his way to investigate a murder, but L wasn't around anymore. He stopped just below the tallest building in the Chubu region, where he'd moved after the originial Kira's demise, and watched the rising sun. Without warning, something very hard cracked him over the head. "YEOW!" He shouted, rubbing the top of his skull. "Okay, what asshole threw that?" He glanced around, but could find no culprit.

He spotted the object that hit him lying on the ground."A...chocolate bar?" He said incredulously. He glanced upward. "R-ryuzaki-san? Was that you? Are you a ghost giving out free sweets?" He thought about this for a moment, then shook his head. "Matsuda, you're an idiot." He mumbled to himself, but smiled at the sky as he said it. How very fitting, only he wished it had been a strawberry. He was working on trimming down his waistline. Plus, it might not have hurt so much.

"I hope that didn't hit anyone." Kaguya peered as far over the edge as she dared.

"Who cares? You're gonna miss the best part!" He said excitedly as the sun barely peeked over the horizen. The sky was painted with gold, blue and peachy-pink still speckled with an occassional star. When the last twinkle had faded and the sun was fully risen, he glanced over at Kaguya. She was smiling, her arms wrapped around her knees and her chin tucked in. A moderate wind was blowing her hair around her face.

"Thanks for bringing me here, Ryuk." She smiled, truly smiled at him. There wasn't a hint of their usual teasing. Her eyes sparkled and the wind had made them a bit teary...or was it something else? A deeper emotion was barely hidden there and he couldn't understand what it might possibly be. He only knew that she was happy and that was somehow good enough.

"Time to go." He said after stealing a few minutes more. She grabbed onto his arms and he lifted her away.

Back at the hotel, there was really nothing for them to accomplish. So they passed the time with their usual banter and more decorating (and no more glue curiousity). Ryuk was treated to yet another dancing lesson after turning on the radio produced another song that Kaguya knew and could not resist gliding around to. Afterward, she told him about someone called Johnny Appleseed who, in American folklore, had gone up and down the entire American continent and planted apple trees. He listened, rapt, and fascinated by the animated way she was telling the tale. The way she talked with her hands and the smile that reached her eyes begged the question why this human girl stirred something inside.

He shouldn't care. Rules didn't matter to him, but he'd always been indifferent to the ones specifically applying to this sort of...strangeness because he'd thought they'd never apply. He could leave her today or tonight even and never look back, he believed. She was boring, he told himself, she didn't want to kill or play chess with people. And yet, there was something that forced him to stay.

Was it her laugh?

Or perhaps her creativity?

Maybe it was those little fairylights in her eyes that morning which had appeared as she watched the sunrise?

It might have been that he wanted to believe that she could be a worthy match for the new Kira. It might have been that he was selfish enough to care only about letting whoever this other shinigami was know who was the true master of creating chaos.

It might have been that once, but it wasn't now.

A part of him, he refused to admit that he had a heart or a soul, had come to care. She'd destroyed his neutrality and, in essence, a bit of him in the process. Yes, he was angry at her to a degree, but it wasn't her fault. Hell, she probably didn't have a clue what was going on in his head while she was hunched over doing this or that. Did she have any idea what he harbored? Impossible. He considered her silently, trying to figure her out. He wasn't the smartest god of death, but neither was he a complete idiot. So why did she stump him?

She'd never feel the same way. As far as he'd seen, humans were not very big on interspecies relationships. Was he a species, though? Or just a spirit? Philosophy, he groaned inwardly, it made his head hurt. _She_ made his chest ache. Emotions were painful, that was why shinigami tended to avoid them. However, as he spent more time around this young human, Ryuk had begun to lose his neutral stance. He was getting involved and he couldn't figure out why.

Kaguya was sure he didn't know that she was watching him out of the corner of her eye. She pretended to read her books and get ahead on schoolwork, but really she was watching him now. He was staring at her, but surely he wouldn't see her peeking. His gaze was distant, as if he weren't really seeing her, and his mouth was pulled down in a tight frown. What was he thinking? She dearly wanted to know.

What did a shinigami think about, anyway? Death couldn't be a constant cause of contemplation. Was he plotting? She hoped so, she knew that she'd need all the help he was willing to offer or that she could bribe out of him.

Staring at him made her slip off on multiple tangents. Something about him distracted her. He wasn't handsome, she knew that. He was, well, scary-looking. Fearsome and strange. That was what made him interesting because she knew that he wasn't really too bad. Creepy, yes, but he was a lot less menacing than many humans she'd met. He'd even been kind to her in his own way.

She wondered what his wings felt like, but he would probably never let her touch them. They looked so soft, like ragged angels' wings. Despite the fascination, she was disgusted with herself. Imagine the implications, hell she could be insane or unstable for having these sorts of thoughts. But there was a kind of string, that was the best way she could describe it, that was pulling her towards him. A thread that had hooked in her chest while she wasn't paying attention and which was drawing her in like a fish.

She knew he'd intended to manipulate her. That wasn't exactly the best start to any kind of relationship, but how could she continue to blame him? Naturally, a shinigami would interfere with human lives. It was part of their existance as much as breathing and food were to humans. So far, he'd been a friend to her when she could have no contact outside the building, had participated with her in outrageous antics and so many other things the three weeks she'd known him. Perhaps this was being hypocritical since she had such a problem with his habit of treating death, such a final and heavy thing, so lightly.

The flutter in her chest disturbed and elated her.

All of a sudden, he was there in front of her. Those familiar eyes set against skin the color of death and those cold, glinting sharks' teeth. Only, nothing about him was cold. When she saw him, it was warmth that now came to mind.

"Ryuk?" She whispered. A curved claw grazed her chin while his other hand tapped out a beat on the desktop. Indescision and perspective should not control her things had to be given a chance. Yet...she could still pull away and end this. She had a feeling that nothing would be different from that point, that he would go on acting like himself and she would always have a sarcastic comment or sassy retort. The question was, could she live with the severed string? To never know what that string would lead her to, was this how the poet Frost had felt? Two paths diverged in a yellow wood and she..she desired to take the road less travelled.

He was more gentle and delicate when tracing her face than she would have thought possible. Unfair, she thought, she could not touch him back. He was transparent like a ghost and even now, in spite of this display of inhumanity, she could tell he wasn't really all that different from her. Whatever this was would probably inevitably crash and burn, but why shouldn't she enjoy a bit of contact?

Finally, he became comfortable enough to be solid and she stroked the raven black feathers of his wings. Princesses usually ask princes to kiss them or to save them from darkness and evil. Kaguya, in spite of or perhaps because of her name, was no princess and if Ryuk was Prince Charming then she'd eat her best leather corset. He was leading her into darkness rather than from it, but she was not afraid. Fear felt unnatural and foreign when he was near.

He did not kiss her so much as he barely brushed her lips. This was to be their secret, the light gesture seemed to say. She pressed forward, leaning into him. She needed the support. From now on, there would be no one but him.

Kaguya had a secret now. She was used to them, maybe, but not one that could hold her while she slept nor one that kept her smiling in spite of homesickness and fatigue.

Ryuk had his arms wrapped securely around her. Shinigamis shouldn't love humans and humans shouldn't love them back, but shit happens. And when it does, it usually hits the fan. Preparation was unnecessary, lines go unscripted and that's the best sort of secret when a lie can become a truth and lovers are friends even as they open the doors of oblivion together.

Kaguya was finally sent for after three days of waiting on edge. L was going to tell her how to succeed in this game. Although he said 'we', she knew that it would be her own neck that was being risked. Terrible, but true and she tried not to think about how she'd brought it upon herself. Now, though, as she trudged through the hallway leading to his room, she couldn't help reviewing her mistake over and over like a bad record.

Having Ryuk there made it somehow so much easier. "We must create a false trail, Miss Mori." L was working on a tiny structure made of Linkin Logs. "Take this little building right here. Sure it's small and it should be easy work for this pirate to pillage and burn." He swaggered a plastic pirate in the door of the little dwelling. "But this little building is only part of the lure. It belongs to an even greater force, like a city or country. And when you attack even a tiny portion of that city or country, retaliation is in order." He brought out a line of about a dozen British soldiers. "And the threat, however small or large, is demolished."

"Please speak plainly." She fiddled with a soldier nervously.

"Hmm." He noisily snacked on a bar of chocolate. "You are going to be an assailant who will create more cases for our new Kira to deal with." Kaguya glanced at Ryuk, who shrugged cluelessly. "How could I put it any plainer? Miss Mori, this new Kira appears to despise pain and suffering. You will be the creator of such things and your presence will be heightened and strengthened by the media. Then you will become the focus and very ideal of what this Angelic Mercy Kira is attempting to stomp out."

"But how-"

He held up a hand. "Leave it to us. We will arrange it." Watari leaned over and said something into L's ear. "Right then, your first torture victim will be 'found' in a few hours. So you will have to be seen leaving the scene of the crime." He hands her a blond wig and a plain blue gingham dress and a mask. "Watari will drop you off there. Hopefully, your acting ability is much more substantial than your intelligence."

She didn't mean to slap him. She really didn't. It just sort of..happened. Before she knew it, she'd gone and left a bright pink handprint on L's pale cheek. "Sorry!" She apologized almost immediately around Watari, who was now strongly ushering her towards the door. She wanted to cry. Kaguya'd never lashed out physically before and her hand stung with the blow while her mind stung with guilt.

Ryuk said nothing until they were outside. Without any sort of warning, he pushed her into a nearby alley and started kissing her senseless. She gasped. "Ryuk, gotta breathe!" He backed away for a second and she daubed at her bruised lips. "What was that about?"

"Dunno." The god of death smirked proudly. "Guess I just like your temper."

"Like?" She scoffed and pointed to a tiny splotch of blood on her upper lip. "That's not like, Ryuk. That's kinky." The word felt odd in her mouth, though she probably should have been used to it by now. Haunts that catered to her tastes were usually littered with BDSM fanatics and doms leading their subs on leashes. These same places sometimes offered Dora the Explorer napkins with their martinis. What a world.

He only laughed and pressed her harder against the brick. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Look, perhaps we should wait for a more opportune time for this sort of discussion."

"Miss Mori?" Watari called from just around the corner of the wall. "Where did you go? Miss Mori!"

"Hmm." Ryuk pressed his lips to her forehead. "Tonight, then."

She wanted to pull her hair out, but she agreed. "It's a date."

The Cheshire Cat would have sorely envied Ryuk's perverted grin. "I'll bring the apples."

Okay, so that was a bit funny, she thought as she climbed inside the limo. Still, Ryuk's cocky move in the alley had gotten her thinking. If shinigamis weren't allowed to have...ahem..those sorts of relationships with humans, but they did anyway...what would happen? She made a mental note to ask Ryuk about that later.

The policeman disguised as an ordinary guy loitered about without a care in the world. He was wearing kevlar and movie stunt blood packets under his loose-fitting T-shirt and jacket. The kevlar was only there to keep the blank shots in the revolver from burning him at such a close range. Kaguya was let out about a block from his location at a well-known shopping mall. This was to divert suspicion. Anyone dropped off at a mall in a _limo_ of all things would be there to shop, right?

Well, she was here to kill someone. Not really, of course, the guy was going to be acting and a bunch of fake paramedics (and a few real ones let in on the part of the scheme) were far enough away in order to arrive at a reasonable time. She briskly walked right through the mall and out the other side, made a left, went through a crosswalk, and ended up only three feet away from her target. There were a handful people standing around, barely paying attention to the outside world. "Excuse me, could you tell me the time?" She asked politely while fiddling with a strand of hair on the right side of her head.

That was the cue.

"Uh, sure." He glanced at his watch. She whipped out the revolver and shot him three times square in the gut. Or, at least, the smoke and sparks made it look that way. She had to hand it to this guy, he was one hell of an actor. He was moaning and holding his 'wounds'. People were staring and pointing, men were running towards her. She ran as fast as she could, cursing L for forcing her into these uncomfortable flat shoes. "My sanity for a pair of combat boots." She growled as her feet ached from impact.

The wig, the dress, and the silicone mask were safely stowed inside a plastic bag. From her vantage point behind a dumpster, she could see the wave of fake EMTs work their acting magic. They were yelling about getting no response and had cleared the bystanders from the area immediately around the man. Then he was loaded up into an ambulance and sent on his way. Shocked innocents stood silently by, watching and glancing around. She knew that they were thinking she might come back.

And she would, but not to this place.

Three more times around Tokyo, she commited an act of 'murder'. The hardest act was when she had to cut off an actor's arm in public. Of course, it helped that the guy didn't have a left arm in the first place and the one she'd mangled was simply a life-like prosthetic. Her stomach was still flip-flopping over that. Immunity to gore was not a trait she had been graced with.

The media whirred with stories about the elusive and mysterious serial killer. She'd even gotten a nickname; Maime Jane. Her victims had all so far suffered horribly gruesome and painful deaths. This was something that Angelic Mercy Kira could not allow in his perfect painless new paradise. He would, hopefully, attempt some sort of retaliation.

All of this in one day was too much to handle and she finally collapsed on the bed in her room. It was still littered with debris from her customization spree, but she didn't have the heart to clean it up. A mess was a mess and messes can wait for a better day. She was nearly asleep when Ryuk, who could no longer contain himself, reminded her of her promise ealier that day.

"Fuck me." She grouchily mumbled into her pillow.

"But..what about the foreplay?" Ryuk asked angelicly, his devilish intentions glittered in his eyes. "And what about the apples? And the kinky stuff? I'd love to see apple juice running down-"

"HOLD IT!" She shouted, bolting upright. Her cheeks were bright red. Absolutely mortified, she glared at the shinigami. "You know that's not what I meant!"

He licked his lips. "Can't a guy dream?" That damned devil. "By the way," He added, apparently as an afterthought. "Apples aren't the only that I ea-" He got a face full of pillow for his come on.

"You disgusting perv!" She shrieked, but now she was laughing, too. "What in the hell am I going to do with you?" She shook with mirth, tears running out of her eyes as she clutched at her stomach.

He grabbed her chin and made her look at him. "Love me, feed me, never leave me."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, honestly...you've got a real flair for the dramatic, don't you, love?" She gave him a peck on his puckish nose. "Now, on to the dreaded topic of kink and bondage..."

Nearly three hours later, Ryuk was persistantly pestering her to buy D-rings, leather belts, a riding crop and other such things. Her multiple steadfast refusals did little to dissuade the determined shinigami from his ultimate goal. She should have known that this would not end well as she huddled on her bed, dying of embarrassment. So help her God, if he ordered something online while he was 'browsing', she was going to kick him square in his gray-ass balls.

Well, regardless of what he did, she refused to be subject of film during an intimate moment. Shinigamis couldn't be seen on film, he'd informed her smartly. Perhaps, but it'd be obvious what was going on if ropes suddenly strapped her into the bed. Something about the famous detective watching her on his many television screens made her skin crawl unpleasently.

He was most likely watching right now. She had an uncharacteristic urge to show him the bottom of her foot. Really, though, she wouldn't. That would be horrible, especially after giving her protection and a place to stay and cover for her family. Slapping him had been more than enough. No, she'd just get this over as quickly and quietly as possible. "Hey, Ryuk."

"Yeah?" The blue glow of the computer screen gave his red eyes a purple tint.

"What's going to happen when all of this is over?" She knew that there was no way that L would allow her to keep the Death Note. He'd probably try to destroy it again, despite her warning. No blaming him for such a thing, either, because Kaguya was sure that she'd do the same thing in his place. The Death Note just wasn't safe in the hands of a human, any human at all. Ryuk's words came back to her and she realized that she couldn't even trust herself.

"Dunno." He answered cooly, though she could tell from the way that he was slightly twisting his arms that he was nervous. "I don't try to predict things. It's boring if you already know what's going to happen."

That may be, and yet she still wanted to know what the future held for her. Such longing was a typical human trait, but she felt as if something were amiss. Ryuk would have to leave her world if L destroyed the Death Note, she knew. He didn't belong here anyway and his form could go from deceptively solid to a virtual ghost. Although, it was definitely pointless to wonder about all of this. Kaguya was fine with being an instrument to cut down Angelic Mercy Kira. That had been the entire point of contacting L in the first place.

Would it be worth it?

Odds were that she'd lose Ryuk. That would hurt, maybe even ruin her. Unhealthy as it sounded, she was now beginning to depend on Ryuk for any semblance of sanity. How else could one run around pretending to kill and mangle people and still be sane? Sometimes, it was good to be able to just sit there and listen to him go on and on about video games (his current favorite was the Sega game Sonic Heros) or apples or even reminiscing on his previous adventures in the human world. It was mind-numbing.

"Ryuk, come here, please." He laid down on his belly above the comforter with his wings out. He knew she loved to pet them. She wrapped her arms around his neck and for a while they remained like that. "I think I may be falling for you." She whispered, half afraid of him hearing.

An amused rumble hummed in his throat. "You know, I've never been suicidal before I met you." She held him tighter, uncaring about L or anyone else who might be watching. No reason for her to care what they thought, they needed her, she didn't need them.

She smiled and played with his earring. "You know, Ryuk, two days from now will be my birthday."

"Right, humans celebrate that for some reason, don't they?"

She rolled her eyes at his sarcasm."Yeah, we do. Anyway, I'm going to ask Watari if I can go out." She placed a chaste little kiss near the base of his neck and he froze. If he were human, he would have bled out in a nosebleed. "It's been a long time since I've been out just to get out and see stuff. Relaxation is in order!"

"What do you have in mind?" He murmured absently.

"Oh, just a cafe. Perhaps a manga or rokuga. Maybe afterwards I'd like to go to the spa for some girl stuff. You probably wouldn't want to accompany me. That's why I'm bringing it up, to warn you." She said playfully. "Unless you wanna help me paint my nails?" She wiggled her fingers at him.

He raised an eyebrow. "Don't care where you're going, anything's better than being around these people. I had to spend time with them before. Absolute boredom! At least you'll give me apples." His eyes took on a deviant gleam. "And sex."

"No!" She pushed him off, laughing. "You silly perv! I fully intend to stay a virgin, thank you."

"That's what you think." He grinned, recapturing her and pinning her to the matress. "I've spent countless years under a metaphorical forced chastity belt imposed by a silly, paranoid monarch. It's about time I got some." He growled and she shivered.

"Don't count on it." She gasped. "I have a bit of self-respect, you know, plus, I can wait."

He rolled his eyes, but smiled. His sharky grin gleamed in the light coming in from the window beside the bed. "Spoil sport, but I love your stubbornness."

"It's not boring?" She teased.

"Nope," He leaned in until their noses touched. "Because it's exciting never knowing when you're going to give in to my sexual charms."

At this, she couldn't help it. She burst out laughing, uncontrollably. Her eyes watered and her ribs hurt. "Yes," She managed to speak around her giggles. "Because you're just a sexy beast." He started to do muscleman poses and she felt as if she were going to die from laughter. "I'm sorry, love, but you have the exact same sexual charm of a bull shark."

"Chomp!" He bit down lightly on her earlobe and her breath hitched.

"Careful, Ryuk, I don't want another piercing there." She warned breathlessly.

"But...I'm Jaws!" He told her. "Can't you hear the theme music? And shouldn't you be screaming? You're ruining the movie for everyone! What a terrible actress you are."

"Eeek." She flailed her arms around a little, giving a very wooden performance. "Somebody save me."

"I'll save you, beautiful maiden! Ryuk to the rescue!" He let go of her earlobe and began tickling her.

"H-hey!" She squirmed. "I thought you were the evil monster!"

"Maybe I am, girl." He resumed his tickle attack. "You can never know these days. Romantic interests are more antagonistic, much more monsterous."

"But you haven't confessed!" She protested. "You can't be a romantic interest until you've confessed properly."

Ryuk suddenly retreated and took to hovering dejectedly just over the bed."I can't. It's forbidden, but even if I tried, the words wouldn't come." Kaguya waited patiently while he morosely broke into a rant. "Rules! Arrrgh! I break 'em all the time, but that's the impossible one! Why. Won't. It. DIE?" If this were a cartoon, steam would have been shooting out of his nostrils.

"The Shinigami King is able to stop his subjects from saying certain things?" She fiddled with the bedcover, twisting it over and over in her hands nervously. _To have that kind of power, so that silence is forced even over the distance of a world barrier...what must that be like?_ She imagined many things, most of them power-hungry tyrant kings thirsty for blood. "What does the Shinigami King look like?"

Ryuk smirked. "Well, now, you've asked the right shinigami, girl...because few other shinigami have seen the King and lived to tell the tale."

"No way, you're bluffing." She challanged playfully.

"No I'm not!" He retorted insistantly. "The Shinigami King can change his appearance, be anything or anyone. That's how he spies and knows everything going on in the Shinigami Realm. He's a tyrant, I guess, but he's the only semblance of organization we have in our world." He shrugged. "Although, he's never really scared me all that much, the opposite really. You should see him have a tantrum, damn that's hilarious..."

"What does he look like? Well, you know, what's the form that he uses the most?"

"His face is skeletal and he has four eyes. His body is round like a ticks, bony and suspended by chains. He has only four legs and his jaws are really mandibles with more fangs jutting out from between them. " He chuckled. "Personally, I think he looks like a gigantic squashed spider with-"

She made a scoffing noise. "Be serious, Ryuku."

"I am!"He persisted humorously to persue this avenue of discussion for the next fifteen minutes, ranting about humans and their tendancy to mistrust poor,innocent Shinigami. She listened, smiling at his antics. Only Ryuk.

Meanwhile, a pair of purple eyes were passing over a number of flat screens, absorbed in the images of each. Some were of the scenes where Ai Mori had committed her 'crimes'. Most likely, he thought as he chewed on a red colored pencil, the real ciminal would be drawn to these places. A shadow darted across his line of vision. "What is that?" He murmured thoughtfully, and he focused the camera in.

A small girl was down on her hands and knees tracing the place where the first victim of Maime Jane had fallen. He could not make out her face and the picture was already dark because of the hour. What was a child barely older than twelve years old doing on her own at night in the middle of the city? "Watari," He glanced behind him. The older man had fallen asleep hours ago on the couch. Near allowed himself a moment to smile, then quickly schooled his features to be blank. "Watari, please wake up. I am in need of your services." The elderly man's only response was a snore.

Near sighed. It seems he had no choice besides colaborating with Ai Mori. She would drive him to investigate what he had observed. Hopefully, the little girl would still be there when they reached their destination.

He knocked on her door. "Miss Mori?"

"Yes?" She opened the door and her jaw dropped to find him at her door. Ai recovered swiftly however and suddenly her expression was guarded. "How may I help you, L?" He wordlessly held up a pair of keys. "Oh no, I am _not_ going to drive you around. I may be working with you, but I am not your servant. Especially since you just waltz down here after insulting me too many times to count and expect me to do you a favor without even a proper greeting." She glanced at her watch. "Do you even know what time it is?!"

"12:32 pm." He said in a clipped tone. "Watari is asleep. He is very tired."

Near knew this would affect her. He'd noticed her immediate affection for Watari and had planned to use this against her. Warring emotions played around on the older girl's face for a moment; annoyance, exhaustion, and finally acceptance. "Don't think that I'm doing this for you. I'm doing this because Watari needs rest. You overwork him." She grumbled as she stormed down the hallway. Ryuk followed her without sparing Near a glance.

The girl was gone when they got there, but Near brought out a flashlight and crawled around on the sidewalk where she'd been looking for clues. A small object caught his eye. He fished it from a muddy puddle and held it up to examine it. The thing turned out to be a pink hair clip in the shape of a bow with a little smiley face at the center.

Kaguya kept staring at the hair clip as if she'd seen a ghost. "What is wrong, Ai?" He asked calmly. "Would you like to share?"

She blushed deeply and shook her head fervently. "No, nothing. It's just..I..nevermind. Let's just go." She hurried back to the car. Near contemplated her suspicious actions in relation to this possible clue. She knew something and he'd have to convince her to tell him. He could threaten her, of course, but he felt that such a move was below him. Manipulation was his MO for a reason. He'd have to get her to trust him somehow.


	5. Chapter 5

Kaguya had not been getting much sleep at night. Behind her eyelids flashed images that she'd rather forget and she'd tossed, turned and wriggled down under the covers until she was buried, but nothing helped. That hair bow...where in the hell had that come from? It haunted her now and every time she tried to push it away, a familiar face kept popping up. It wasn't possible!

But it wasn't as if you could find a hairbow like that in places all around the world. That little sprinkle of white glitter, the specially tied bow that had taken forever to make, the little smiley face button that she'd found someplace..Kaguya remembered making it as clearly as if it were yesterday, despite the seven years that had passed since its creation. She groaned and punched her pillow, drawing a confused look from Ryuk. "Somethin' wrong?"

A glance at the clock told her that it was seven in the morning. Early enough that no one would question her being up. She took a deep breath and ran a hand through her hair. "No, I'm fine. I just...I'm going to go take a bath, alright?"

He frowned, swiveling the computer chair around to face her. Ryuk stared as she gathered up some clean clothes and assorted toiletries. The bruises under her eyes were beginning to look permanent. For the past three days, he'd noticed her severe insomnia. Sometimes she would fall asleep in the middle of the day only to wake up within an hour with traces of tears on her cheeks. Did it have something to do with that late-night goose chase?

Kaguya felt his eyes on her, but ignored it. Honestly, all she really need was to relax in some hot water and bubbles. A nice bath would be just the thing to relieve her mind of the recent stress. Stress was what was wrong. That hair bow meant nothing, maybe someone had seen Maddie wearing it and decided to copy it. Anything was possible. It couldn't have been her. It couldn't have been her.

She tested the water tentatively before undressing and getting in. The hot water made her smile and sigh, but inwardly, she was still conflicted. _Seven years_...her fists clenched as her chest tightened. Where had that time gone?

"Happy anniversary, Maddi-chan!" Exclaimed ten year old Kaguya. She held out a little pink box with a darker pink bow. "It's the third year since we became friends!"

"Gomenesai, Kaguya-chan!" Gasped Madeline as she accepted the gift with a huge smile. "I bet it is something you made yourself." She pulled open the lid of the box and her eyes widened, looking down at the smaller girl with surprise and warmth. "K-kaguya-chan...it's so cute, thank you. I'll wear it always!"

"Can I put it in?" Kaguya asked, grinning. Her friend nodded and she gently gathered her bangs and clipped them to the side. "It looks great now, but since your mother said you can dye your hair pink next year, it'll look even better 'cause it'll match!"

A knock at the door brought her out of her nostalgia. "Hai?" She called out, startled. "Who's there?" It definitely wasn't Ryuk. He would have just phased right through the door or floor or wall without a warning. Which was why she'd banned him long ago from following her to the bathroom.

Watari cleared his throat."Miss Mori, a letter came for you this morning." She let out a sigh, thanking God that it wasn't the albino boy. She would have been more than a little uncomfortable knowing that he was just outside the door. "I will leave it here on your bed. It is from your parents, I believe." She heard him leave the adjoining bedroom and sighed.

And she had been looking forward to a long soak! She tapped her finger thoughtfully against her lips, maybe she could have Ryuk slip it through the door? She grabbed her towel and wrapped it somewhat haphazardly around her waist. "Ryuk, could you please hand me that letter?" She asked.

"Sure, here." She reached for it, but just as she leaned forward, she slipped in her own puddle of water. Instinctively she grabbed onto his hand and Ryuk was yanked right through the door. He landed on top of her, knocking the breath out of her. Kaguya barely missed slamming her temple on the edge of the counter as she went down, but her left arm had flung out and smacked the wall hard enough to bring tears to her eyes.

"Owww...fish nipples." She cursed weakly, she was definitely in too much pain to curse properly. She blinked dazedly up at Ryuk, who was strangely blushing. "Wha~?" She felt him move hastily backward and she realized that her towel had slipped down a bit in her fall to reveal... "OH HELL, GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!" She shouted, trying to cover herself and prop herself up at the same time. Ryuk disappeared back through the closed door while she attempted to regain her bearings. She winced while flexing the fingers of her injured hand, but it didn't feeling like anything was broken "Ryuk?"

"I didn't see anything!"

She chuckled a little breathlessly. "It's fine, Ryuk. I'm sorry for yelling at you. I was just stunned from the fall. Everything was my fault, anyway."

She smiled when she heard his relieved sigh on the other side of the door. There was a slight pause. "Are you alright, girl?"

"Yeah, don't worry. I'll just finish my bath and be out in a little while, okay?" She plucked the letter up from the floor. It was splotched with wet spots and she noticed that there was no return address and no stamp, just her name written in her dad's handwriting. She flipped it over and smiled. A puppy sticker held the envelope shut. That was her mother's touch. She carefully slipped her finger under the paper lip and popped it open.

The paper was scented like raspberries and very fine, her favorite fruit Inside, she found a purikuro picture of her mom, dad, and brother smiling at the camera.

Dear Kaguya,

We love you and miss you. Sorry we cannot send a bigger gift, but we were told we weren't allowed to send anything that couldn't fit in an envelope. We just want you to know that we'll never forget this day. Happy birthday, our little princess. We're so proud of you.

You've come so far from where you started out. You were stronger than any of the others and that's why we picked you. Do you remember? You were still young, so we can't be sure you do. A seven year-old little girl in blue pajamas with green frogs on them, you were absolutely precious. You were walking with a crutch because your ankle was broken. We were told it was done by your real parents...

"But, you are my real parents." She blinked back tears. Of course she remembered, even Hiroshi remembered the day he was adopted! And he was only five when they picked him. It had been the happiest day of her life.

...we were told that there were other things. Not so much physical abuse as mental and emotional and that you might be damaged. We wanted to try, though, and we kept coming back every day. At first, you were very suspcious and didn't want to trust us. After a few weeks, though, you started to open up. One day, we came and we brought you a couple of chocolate-covered strawberries. You looked at us like we were...well, it's impossible to explain what was going through your mind, but we knew at that moment that you were ready. You'd finally accepted us.

This must be difficult, we realize we're bringing up these memories. But there is a point to this. We want you to know that just like you accepted us that day, we accept you. We love you and we always will. That means that no matter the reason you are being kept away from us, our thoughts will be with you. We support you in whatever you do. We aren't upset that you tried to protect us by keeping your departure a secret until after the fact, but we do wish you will come home soon.

Love,

Mom, Dad, and Hiroshi.

She read it many times over, a sad smile gently curled the ends of her lips. There was no reason for her to angst over having been adopted or to moan over the half-remembered abuse she'd experienced. All of that had happened such a long time ago that it seemed to have taken on a dream-like quality. Her life with her adopted parents was as normal and natural as breathing. They'd always given her so much more freedom than many other children enjoyed and she would be forever thankful for that.

And yet...

Kaguya would never have been able to imagine that the recent incidents would dredge up bits of her own past. Thirteen years had gone by since she'd befriended Madeline at the orphanage, and seven since she'd given her that hair bow. She and Madeline had been friends for so long and it had ended in a whirlwind little more than a year ago. How in the world could that hair bow have ended up on that street in the middle of the night?!

The water was cooling down, but she wasn't ready to get out, so she re-filled the tub. She leaned back against the rim of the tub, deep in thought and still holding her letter. Who was she kidding? It wasn't very likely that the bow had been copied and less likely that the bow would have been dropped in the street by an unknown person in the middle of the night. She felt as if she were missing something very important.

A bead of water tickled the end of her nose and she reached up to wipe it away. In doing so, she saw a flash of writing she hadn't noticed. There was a small note in a childish hand tucked away on the back of the letter.

Dear Kaguya,

I haven't seen you for such a long time. The last time we talked was when my sister died, but I really want to see you again soon. Your mom and dad told me that you got in a fight with them. Why? You're so lucky, Kaguya-san! I don't have my sister or my mom anymore. How could you disrespect your parents like that? They love you so much that they sent you a letter to America all the way from Japan! Please, Kaguya-san, please!

There's actually another reason I want you to come home so badly. I feel so sad and guilty about what I'm going to tell you. I'm sure you'll be mad! Please don't be mad, but I lost Maddie's hair bow that you made her. It was her favorite one and I'm soooooo sorry. You can't imagine how terrible I feel! Can you forgive me?

"Oh..." She sucked in a hissing breath. "Oh my God. This is not happening."

She jumped up immediately, dried off, and yanked on her clean clothes. She ran out the door and into the bedroom with the letter in an iron grip. "Ryuk!" He lept to his feet and watched as she took off.

"Kaguya?"

Lwas scrutinizing an unsolved Rubix cube. Twenty seconds later, it was solved and was discarded. "Too easy." He mumbled as he grabbed a thin block from the Jenga stack beside him. He heard familiar footsteps approaching the door at a fast pace. "Miss Mori, how many times must we unstick you-" The door slammed open and he caught her nearly deranged expression.

"It was her! My God, it was her!" She nearly shouted at him, running towards his box of vhs tapes. She tore through them searching for the one from nearly a week ago. She found it and shoved it in the player roughly, then fastforwarded it to the part where the girl appeared to tiptoe onscreen. She paused it at the girl's face. The quality was poor, but it was undoubtably her. It was Mariah, Madeline's ten year old half-sister. Kaguya put her head in her hands and her shoulders shook.

"Miss Mori, if you're going to insist on coming in here acting like that, then I demand to know what is going on." Near saved a wobbling stack of cards from falling over from the vibrations of the young woman's outburst.

"I know that girl." Her voice wavered. "Her name is Mariah and she is the younger sister of my late best friend Madeline Morizaki."

L hummed. "Well, isn't this just starting to sound like an American soap opera? Please continue."

She held up the letter that contained the evidence. "I know it was her because I made that bow you picked up. It was an aniversary present several years ago that I gave to her sister. There a small possibility that it was copied by someone who saw it and liked the look, but that is unlikely. After all, she said that she is missing the hair bow and the video proves that she was there." She took a deep breath to steady herself. "But Mariah is just a little girl."

"Miss Mori, when I was only nine years old, I passed the Bar Exam for Harvard Law. Young does not necessary mean incapable." He corrected calmly while yanking another brick from the Jenga tower. "This young girl is now an official suspect. We must bring her in as soon as possible."

"No!" Kaguya said loudly. He turned his blank eyes to her and she cowered a little. "Um, I mean..don't you have other, more probable suspects?"

L tilted his head. "Well, there was a dog that walked past one of the fake murder scenes. And there was a man who kneeled beside the pavement for nearly the entire night yesterday, his head bowed in prayer."

At the mention of the dog, Kaguya sweat-dropped, but let it go. "Well, can we identify the man?" She stammered out as she tried to regain her shattered composure.

"Of course. We've been running his face across police data bases and it seems that he has a certain...history." He plucked out another Jenga brick and watched the tower wobble. "It seems that he has been charged with assault and battery, but not on an innocent bystander." He ejected the previous tape and slipped in the more recent one. Immediately, the image of a man walked onscreen holding what might have been a candle or a flashlight (the quality was really that terrible) and he kneeled at the site just as L had said he had and bowed in prayer. "This man is Kyoishio Yamato and is a member of the Harmony Sect." L yanked two blocks this time from higher up on the structure.

"H-harmony Sect?" She had never heard of that before, but then again, she wasn't very well-versed with cults.

"Mhm. Decieving name, isn't it? You'd think that the members of something called the Harmony Sect would spend their time dancing around cherry trees in the nude or prancing through fields of summer wildflowers." His expression darkened ever so slightly. "But it is a cult that worships the deeds of the first Kira, Light Yagami, as the will of a god. They have taken everything to an extreme, from sacrificing themselves to save others during robberies to the beatings and murders of ex-convicts or current criminals."

"What is he doing there, then?" She bit her lip as she stared at the man.

"I believe that the cult has taken an interest in Maime Jane, so they sent one of their lower ranking members out to investigate her. 'Know thine enemy' is a phrase which personifies their methods. We've been trying to stamp out the cult since the last Kira, but they've managed to survive somehow despite our efforts." The Jenga tower toppled and a block hit L on his colourless head. "Ouch." He muttered blandly.

She nervously shifted from foot to foot. "So this means that someone's out to get me?"

"Well, not you per se, but the persona you've created, yes." He replied, turning his attention to a bunch of mismatched toy soldiers. "It seems that we have a problem of substantial size on our hands, Miss Mori. However, we must remember that justice will prevail no matter the cost."

"Are you still going to arrest Mariah?" Her voice cracked with emotion. "You can't do that, I won't let y-"

L was up so fast that she didn't even see him move. His finger was on her lips, silencing her. "No one tells me what to do, Miss Mori." She stared down at him, fearful of this strange younger man. He stepped back and gave her space. "However, I will not take in the girl. Not yet. There is too little evidence. We must continue with your charade as Maime Jane for a little while longer. That way we give someone the chance to strike."

Her eyes narrowed in anger, the ferocious heat boiling inside of her built up and stoked by this presumptious, arrogant, smarter-than-thou sixteen year old! "Are you implying that you are willing to give someone the chance to kill me?"

She heard him sigh. "Please don't be so dramatic, Miss Mori. Kira would only be able to kill you if you weren't wearing your mask and the cult will not get the chance to lay a finger on you. We would be raining down gunfire at the merest hint of a confrontation. You will live to so see another day...however unfortunate that may be for the innocent pairs of jeans that you so callously destroy."

To her own surprise as well as his, she grinned and laughed a little. He tilted his head to the side and his eyes betrayed a minescule hint of interest in her reaction. "You really are something, aren't you?" She shook her head and walked out the door.

Once she was gone, he was still staring after her. Softly, he spoke. "We are all something, Miss Mori. And it takes a lifetime for us to find out what that 'something' is." He realized that he was holding a small green plastic dinosaur in his hand. "Rawr." He growled absently and used the toy to collapse a building made of cards.

Maime Jane was on another spree. This time she'd busted up a poor couple who had been leaving the local shopping arcade with what appeared to be a baseball bat with a Bowie knife duct taped to the end of it. She caught a woman as she was getting onto the train, shooting her in the back from less than three feet away. Maime Jane had then proceeded to kick and punch at bystanders who attempted to come to the aid of the lady.

Each time Maime Jane struck, just as had been done with the first arranged murder, a security camera was mounted in secrecy to spy down on the spot. Every few days, Kyoishio Yamato would come and examine each spot as he had before under the guise of a simple cloak and a lighted stick of incense for prayer. He would use the time to scavange the area for clues, which were non-existant, of course.

Near was curled in his customary position on the sofa next to Watari who was taking notes on each of Yamato's appearances. "Watari, we've taken the liberty of inviting this man to a make-believe tea party, why don't we give him pretend tea and honeycakes, too?" Watari chuckled to himself and got up to fetch Miss Mori.

The elderly man led Kaguya into L's room where the albino boy was surrounded by a plastic tea set. "Sit." By now she was used to his rude orders, so she did as she was told without protesting for a 'please'. L placed a stuffed rabbit on her left. "Kyoshio would like some tea." He pretended to pour some into the purple cup in front of the toy. L stared at her for a few seconds. "You should help Kyoshio drink his tea, Miss Mori."

Frowning, she picked up the teacup and held it at the bunny's face. "He's done now." She informed L with an uncomprehending look on her face. "What in the world does this have to do with anything?"

L picked up the bunny and peered down at it. "We invited Kyoshio to a tea party, Miss Mori. We must be good hosts and give him his fair, otherwise he may leave and never bother with us again." He raised his eyes up to meet hers. "Do you understand?"

She blinked back at him and tilted her head while that over. Realization suddenly hit her. _Oh, that's what he meant!_ "Okay..um..yeah, I think I understand what you're getting at. How're we gonna do that?"

L's smirk was discernable this time. She could believe that it was the first time he'd shown clear emotion since she'd met him nearly a month and a half ago. "Simple, we will 'leak' information about the time and location of Maime Jane's next murder." With unexpected force he slammed a piece of paper and shoved a pen her way. "The best way to do that is to write a threatening letter. Listen to me and take down everything I say word for word."


End file.
